The intervention of various residents’ associations in the city to speed up the vaccination of senior citizens has come to fruition with the Health Department’s latest plan to reach out to the needy with the support of ward councillors, Junior Public Health Nurses (JPHN) and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA).
Now, efforts are on to collect the ward-level details of all elderly citizens, whose final dose is due as a result of the vaccine shortage and other unexpected technical issues. The comprehensive ward-level priority list will be prepared carrying the names of persons who have completed 42 days after their first dose. Arrangements are also in place to give equal consideration for all wards.
For many, the delay in getting the second dose had emerged as a headache after they failed to schedule it online due to various technical issues. Though many of them had been in touch with various private and government hospitals for support, the shortage of vaccine and the previously set distribution norms were playing spoilsport.
“Currently, at least 10 senior citizens from each ward get their final shot with our intervention. The list is being prepared in such a way as to attend emergency requests with high priority,” said a residents’ association leader from Karaparamba ward, who took up the issue with the higher authorities. In the absence of ASHA workers, the ward councillors themselves would be preparing the data and exchanging it with the Health Department staff concerned, he said.
Some senior citizens, who received their final shot on Monday and Tuesday, said they were very much apprehensive of the inordinate delay in the vaccination process and the possible complications as a result of the delayed booster dose.
